Peabody-award winning journalist Doug Levy covered medicine for USA TODAY and other major media for more than 10 years. On this blog, he posts observations, commentary and quirks on the road or from his home base in San Francisco. For more about Doug, visit douglevy.com. For Doug's commentary about food and wine, visit wineandfoodworld.com.

Monday, January 19, 2009

There is almost an eerie calm quiet here in the nation's capital region. Many locals have gone away. Many of us visitors are winding down early tonight because getting to the swearing-in ceremony and parade will be complicated, crowded, and slow.

But the people I have encountered today all share an energy that I have never before experienced. The checker at Safeway said she was trying to get all of her friends to contribute $5 a month toward helping others. My friend Liisa said this is the realization of Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream. Another friend said we now will have a president who understands how complicated the world is today. One person said we again have a great role model in the White House. Or two, since Michelle Obama seems pretty amazing, too.

At dinner tonight, my friends and I toasted our new president, bid farewell to Mr. Bush, and prayed that the world may be a bit better now. I hope that we are all entering a new era of peace and prosperity.

I look forward to making a lot of new friends as we celebrate this Inauguration Day.

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About Doug Levy

Doug Levy is a veteran journalist, former health reporter for USA Today, former chief communications officer at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, NY, and a non-practicing lawyer (licensed in Maryland.) Levy is a Peabody-award winning investigative reporter, formerly with USA Today, United Press International and National Public Radio, among other media.